Rubio: COAC 'Lobbied to Water Down' UFLPA Implementation
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the lead proponent of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in the Senate, wrote a critical letter to the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee (COAC), saying some of their ideas for customs modernization are designed to weaken the UFLPA.
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The COAC co-chair declined to comment on the letter, which Rubio released late Nov. 2. The letter also was signed by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.
They say COAC "apparently sought to weaken this overwhelmingly bipartisan initiative by advocating for changes that would stifle its enforcement. Specifically, we take issue with your purported attempts to make data collected from vessel manifests confidential and to get CBP to provide importers with advance notice whenever it suspects forced labor is being used."
Provisions under discussion by COAC and the 21st Century Customs Framework Task Force include a suggestion that CBP should try to provide advance notice to trusted traders if a shipment is going to be detained because of an allegation it contains goods made with forced labor.
The lawmakers argue that the public manifests help those trying to keep forced labor out of the U.S. economy. Non-profits do use this information to highlight examples of imports from Xinjiang, for example.
"Fortunately, the changes you reportedly advocated for cannot be enacted without Congressional approval. If importers attempt to lobby Congress to make such changes, we pledge to vigorously oppose them," they wrote.